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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Elisa Gall |Sarah Ellis |Julie Roach |Shelley Isaacson
A Sleepless Night by Micaela Chirif; illus. by Joaquín Camp; trans. from Spanish by Jordan LandsmanPrimary Transit 48 pp. 9/24 9798893389050 $19.95In this vibrant and absurdist Argentinian import, young Elisa cries so loudly that her narrator sibling says she sounds “like a fire truck instead of a baby,” and all the neighbors in their apartment building are disrupted.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Marva Hinton |Allison Grover Khoury |Shelley Isaacson |Martha V. Parravano
The first time I read My Daddy Is a Cowboy, I was drawn to C. G. Esparanza’s stunning illustrations and the sweetness of the narrative by Stephanie Seales. I love a good father-daughter story, and this one comes wrapped in an incredibly beautiful package. On subsequent readings, I only found more things to appreciate and enjoy. This atmospheric picture book is about a Panamanian American girl and her daddy who take their horses out for an early-morning ride.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Shelley Isaacson |Martha V. Parravano |Brian Wilson |Betsy Bird
I should have been prepared for the emotional sequence of images on the sixth double-page spread of Life After Whale. It’s not a secret. The title reveals the plot: Life AfterWhale. But I wasn’t prepared. I let Chin’s immersive cover, front matter, and opening scenes — a sequence of full-bleed illustrations painted predominantly in shades of blue — pull me into the aquatic life of a blue whale.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Julie Roach |Christina Dorr |Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Shelley Isaacson
Under cheerfully intrepid cover art, Aaron Becker’s wordless picture book opens onto quite a mood with a wash of watercolors in gloomy grays and blues. Intricate scratchy lines depict a scene of old, crumbly stone buildings from who-knows-what era rising out of standing water. Isolated on various high points of ground are animals: giraffes on one, elephants on another, and tigers on still another. Towering over them all stands an enormous yellow robot caring for the creatures.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Christina Dorr |Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Shelley Isaacson |Julie Hakim Azzam
A picture book is a whole package, every square inch valuable real estate. And Susanna Chapman, illustrator of The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith!, wastes none of that real estate as she lays the land for author Dean Robbins’s spare lyrical text. Together both text and art reveal Viola’s passion, intensity, and musicality.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Adrienne L. Pettinelli |Shelley Isaacson |Julie Hakim Azzam
Illustrator Frank Morrison began his career as an artist breakdancing and creating graffiti art. These influences are evident in his illustrations for My Block Looks Like, in which he turns Janelle Harper’s joyful ode to city life into a story about what a child experiences on their way to a dance audition. Street art influences Morrison’s palette, his lines and angles, and the exquisite lettering of the graffiti we see in his backdrops.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Shelley Isaacson |Julie Hakim Azzam |Adrienne L. Pettinelli
Full disclosure: I am a dog person. My daughter, also a dog person, and a pediatrician, reports that the service dogs who visit her hospital are often the only remedy for her sick patients. I believe in dog joy. But the medal-worthiness of Jump for Joy, illustrated by Hadley Hooper and written by Karen Gray Ruelle, does not depend on your shared canine affection.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Julie Hakim Azzam |Shelley Isaacson |Adrienne L. Pettinelli
There are many classically trained musicians in my extended family, the most significant being two high school cellists who live with me. They are the reason I purchased a bigger car, with which I transport their two massive instruments in bulky hard cases, to private lessons, chamber groups, and youth orchestra practices.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Julie Danielson |Martha V. Parravano |Julie Roach |Shelley Isaacson
Cookie Time by Jessie Sima; illus. by the authorPreschool, Primary Simon 56 pp. 9/24 9781665936743 $18.99e-book ed. 9781665936750 $10.99Kat and Ari love baking cookies with Grandpa but struggle with the wait while the treats are in the oven. So they build a time machine to skip ahead to when the cookies are done—but they miscalculate and arrive to find them already eaten. Determined to enjoy the cookies, they hop back into the time machine to try again.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Martha V. Parravano |Julie Danielson |Julie Roach |Shelley Isaacson
The Blue Canoe by Sheryl McFarlane; illus. by Laurel AylesworthPreschool, Primary Familius 32 pp. 7/24 9781641709156 $16.99A growing family is exciting, but for young children this time can also bring anxiety. A little girl with a beloved stuffed bear in tow enjoys a “paddle-on-the-lake day” with her mother in their blue canoe. The girl is excited to become a big sister and eagerly tells her bear all the big-sister duties she will take up, such as helping put on a life jacket.
